Authorities were listening as the colorful Vrdolyak discussed the arrangement with Stuart Levine, a crooked lawyer who was pressing his old pal for his share of a bogus finder's fee.

"We don't need the both of us in trouble," Vrdolyak said as he promised Levine a cut of a $1.5 million fee. "I'm with you now and forever."

Vrdolyak, nicknamed "Fast Eddie," didn't realize that Levine, already charged for other wrongdoing and under financial pressure, recorded their conversations for four months in 2006 while cooperating with the feds.

Vrdolyak pleaded guilty Nov. 3 to his role in the scheme to pocket a kickback from Rosalind Franklin University's sale of a Gold Coast building, but much of the evidence against him had remained sealed.

U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur ordered parts of the materials unsealed Monday, a week after attorneys for the Chicago Tribune had sought access to them.

Despite deleted portions, the court filings provide the clearest account yet of the scheme to reap a windfall when the school moved to sell property for a condo development in 2004.

Levine, a board member at the school, tapped his friend Vrdolyak to find a buyer, Smithfield Properties Development.

Vrdolyak referred Levine to a undisclosed go-between, identified in court papers only as "Individual A," who would link Levine to Smithfield Properties.

Former Chicago Ald. William Singer has been identified as acting as a consultant in the real estate deal, however he has not been charged.

In their last taped conversation in June 2006, Vrdolyak was furious that Levine had gone directly to the negotiator for Smithfield about his share of the fee, the records show.

The danger would come if federal authorities went to the negotiator and questioned him, Vrdolyak pointed out on the undercover tape.

"Do you think he's not gonna tell anybody every [expletive] thing you said?" Vrdolyak said. "If they come and see him? What, are you [expletive] nuts?"